Being Normal
by IXneufneunnuevejiukyu
Summary: Ogino Chihiro seems to have finally become 'normal'. She left behind her childhood ramblings years ago with psychiatric help. Explaining her tale as an anxiety induced coping mechanism sprung from a mixture of the stress of moving, the heat, and a neurological reaction to inhaling hallucinogenic flower pollen. So what happens when spirits start turning up?


Ogino Chihiro seems to have finally become 'normal'. She left behind her childhood ramblings years ago with psychiatric help. Explaining her tale as an anxiety induced coping mechanism sprung from a mixture of the stress of moving, the heat, and a neurological reaction to inhaling hallucinogenic flower pollen. So what happens when spirits start turning up?

_Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Spirited Away._

* * *

"Come on, Chihiro, we're going to be late," a voice yelled up my stairs.

"I'm almost ready, Seitarou!" I shouted back down from my bedroom.

I glanced at my appearance in the mirror as I straightened my uniform, which consisted of a black pleated skirt, a white blouse, and a black sailor collar. It was the first day of my second year of high school. My brown hair was long and in a messy ponytail, but I didn't care. I was more excited to see my friends.

I ran down the stairs and found Seitarou seated on my living room sofa with my mother, Yuko, sitting across from him chatting about school and holding my two year old brother, Daisuke.

"Now who's wasting time, Sei?"

"Be more polite to your friends, Chihiro," my mother scolded while patting the gurgling toddler on the back as he hiccupped.

"Okay, Seitarou-kun, shall we leave, we do not want to miss our train," I said, attempting, and succeeding, to sound sickly sweet and shooting a glare her way.

He stood up, thanked my mother for her hospitality and then we both went to put our shoes on. He was always very polite, even when I first met him when we were kids. We left and I called a goodbye over my shoulder to mother.

* * *

"Ha, told you we wouldn't be late, take that,"

We were both panting from running to catch the train, but that's beside the point. The train was crowded and we there were no seats, frankly there was hardly room to stand. Seitarou was holding the grip hanging from the ceiling and I was pressed up against him. Some might have thought this would be awkward or embarrassing or _romantic_. But, to be honest, it wasn't really any of those things for me and as far as I knew it wasn't for him either.

Taketou Seitarou was my best friend. He was the first real person I met when I moved here six years ago. He stood by me when I had no other friends in elementary and then middle school, due to a slight reputation of being crazy and telling people I met spirits in an abandoned amusement park.

We now attend a large high school about a forty minute train ride over to the next town, where no one knows about the crazy, spirit Chihiro. The only Chihiro there, is the track running, friends with that cute guy, Chihiro. And that Chihiro is just fine by me.

As I stood, squished close against Seitarou's muscular chest, I ended up really looking at him. Not that I hadn't looked at him before. I had been looking at him for the last six years. I wanted to see what everybody else saw. He looked distracted and thinking with a far off look in his eyes, so he probably wouldn't notice my dissection. I looked up at the curve of his jaw, his smooth pale skin, his well maintained black hair. He was awkward in middle school, he was short, wore glasses, and was smart and nerdy. But he was a friend and I didn't care what he looked like. Actually, I think him being friends with me hurt him more socially than my being friends with him. But, he didn't seem to care that people avoided the both of us because of me, back then.

Just before our first year of high school he changed, physically, that is. He had a massive growth spurt. In middle school we were both about 5'4". Now he's around a monstrous 6' and I remained at an average 5'4". He also got contacts. He had been doing karate since he was a kid, but he always remained kind of skinny and awkward. Later, when he was about fifteen he changed from awkward and gangly to lean and muscular. He's also an active member of the karate club at school.

Even though he changed physically and a number of girls started to take notice he was still my Seitarou on the inside. He could still tell when I was upset and could still cheer me up. And I could still do the same for him. Why should I care that he's just kind of really hot now?

God, what am I thinking? This is Seitarou, my best friend Seitarou. There is nothing but an extremely close friendship between us. This is all that Maru's fault.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Seitarou's face leaning closer so that it was only about three centimeters away from my own. His dark eyes stared into my own brown ones. And I blushed from the proximity. I had to blush.

All he said was, "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Why your face is so close in proximity to my own, that is what I'm thinking about," I growled back looking away to hide my blush and punching him in the arm.

"Hey, you're the one that's pressed up against me, so don't even talk about proximity," he said, purposefully trying to wind me up.

"This is a crowded train!" I yelled, "Would you rather me be pushed against some—some molester!"

I could see everyone sort of glancing over at me, and Seitarou only laughed at me.

"You are such a bast—" I started to say, when I felt his hand wrap around mine and start dragging me to the exit.

"What's the big idea, I was in the middle of insulting you,"

"This is our stop, Chihiro, I don't know about you but I would like to actually attend the first day of school, and I can't leave you behind with all of the would be molesters." He dragged me through the crowd, grinning at that last remark.

"Alright, alright I'm coming—" I said, letting go of his hand, we were just about at the exit, when suddenly I felt a hand on my ass.

"What the hell, get away from me you creep," I yelled, I was stunned, and slapped his hand, but the guy still didn't move. He wasn't really the stereotypical pervert either he was young, and tall with messy blonde hair, dark reddish eyes, and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Then Seitarou was there, he pushed me behind him, effectively removing the guy's hand from my ass.

Before the situation could escalate any further, I grabbed Seitarou's hand and pulled him to the door. I didn't want him to get into any trouble over me.

"Come one, Sei, forget about him, the door's going to close and then we'll be late,"

* * *

We finally got off the train and started the short, five minute walk to school. I was silent.

"I'm so sorry, Chihiro, I shouldn't have been joking about molesters like that, are you sure you're okay."

He looked upset and I wanted to cheer him up for the first day of school.

"I'm fine, Sei, I'm more upset that I didn't get to punch that cigarette down his pervy throat," I said grabbing and squeezing his hand to reassure him.

"But still, let's not mention this to anyone," I said, but he still looked unsure, before he could take it any further a new voice appeared.

It was Maruyama Teiko, who had appeared from behind us in all her glory, she looked a little out of breath from running to catch up with us, but she still looked like her usual beautiful self. She has silky light brown hair and a very attractive figure. Her large breasts more than filled out our school uniform, I, in comparison looked as flat as a board. She also constantly claims that Seitarou and I would make, and I quote, "the cutest, most adorable couple ever."

"What's not being mentioned to anyone else, have you too finally decided to get together?" she said, eyeing our still locked hands.

"What, no, no what're you talking about?!" I said, and then followed her gaze to our hands, which swiftly broke apart.

"So, then what_ is_ the big secret,"

"Nothing, I'll tell you later, Maru,"

My tone screamed "drop it" and surprisingly she did.

"I'm so excited that we're in the same class again this year, I hear that annoying Saikawa's with us again, too," she said wrapping a friendly arm around my shoulders, "Too bad Seitarou-kun's not in our class," she whispered into my ear, trying to sound seductive.

"Maru," I said warning in my tone, elbowing her away from me.

Despite her antics, I was extremely happy that Maru was in my class, we became friends last year and she is definitely my closest girl friend. I even told her about my past _issues_ in middle and elementary school, expecting her to run away and call me a freak. Surprisingly, she didn't. She said she didn't care about whatever I was like back then and that she's glad we met either way.

We miraculously got to school on time. We switched our street shoes for our inside ones, the toe of mine and Maru's was pink, and on the bottom said our name and class. Seitarou's was the same, but his toe was blue, as he is a male.

We walked together to our classrooms, Seitarou entering class 2-A and we went a bit further down to 2-C. Our homeroom teacher was Seki-san, she seemed like a nice enough person.

I took my assigned seat, a few rows over from Maru. I was organizing my books when I heard a familiar voice,

"Ogino, ready for me to leave your ass in the dust this afternoon," the guy in the seat in front of me turned around to say.

That was the infamous Saikawa Hisajiro. He is also a member of the track team, and we enjoy a healthy _and _extremely competitive relationship.

"In your dreams, Saikawa, I bet some of the new freshman might even beat you,"

His mouth hung open, "How dare yo—"

"All right class, let us begin," said Seki-san, who was also our math teacher, giving the class an "I mean business" kind of look. Everyone quieted down and Saikawa gave me one last glare before facing forward.

Seki-san gave a speech about how she expected us to try our best and listen and respect one another and her, and blah, blah, blah. I looked out the window at the blue sky with its large puffy white clouds. Suddenly I felt nostalgic, this carefree spring sky reminded me of something, it reminded me of the sky from that time when I was ten years old. I started to think about the crazy stories I told about it after. The witch, the bathhouse, the spirits, the boy.

'No, no, no, I finally got things right and moved on from those crazy dreams, I have my friends, Saikawa and Maru and Sei. I will not let that hallucinogenic pollen induced hysteria drag me down again,'

This was the first time I had really felt that nostalgic, longing for it in years. And I was worried.

The next teacher came into the room; it was our English teacher, Mr. Kennedy. He was me, Maru, and Saikawa's English teacher last year, too. My school only has two English teachers him and Uehara-san. She was Japanese and very strict, Seitarou had her last year, apparently her was mainly on grammar. Comparatively, Mr. Kennedy was British and admittedly more relaxed.

When Mr. Kennedy walked in many kids breathed a sigh of relief, a few even said, "Thank goodness" aloud. I was pleased I got him, as English was one of my worst subjects and his focus being more on speaking than confusing grammar patterns.

I glanced over at Maru, as I expected, she also looked happy. English was one of her best subjects so, really, it didn't matter if she got the more difficult teacher. She was just happy because she found Mr. Kennedy attractive. She is even a member of the conversational English club which both Mr. Kennedy and Miss Uehara sponsor. However, unlike many other clubs Mr. Kennedy and Miss Uehara attend many of the meetings, because, well the kids need someone to help converse with. As a side note, the social butterfly that Maru is, she is a member of the conversational English club _and_ the student council.

Being forced to speak so much English aloud made me temporarily forget my troublesome recollection. And after English we had physical education, which was also quite distracting because I was busy competing with Saikawa.

My class mixed phys. Ed. with another class, the grade above us, class 3-C. We were playing badminton. It was myself and Maru on one team and Saikawa and a friend of his from 3-C on the other.

After phys. Ed. we returned to class for Japanese with Kamiki-san. It was not my best nor was it my worst. This was also my last class before lunch.

Japanese was over and Seki-san came back into the classroom for lunch hour. I had a bento made by mom and I went over and sat with Maru, Saikawa came with me. Matsuhita, a friend of Sei's from the karate club was already with Maru.

"Hey, Maru Maru Mori Mori, how was your break?" asked Saikawa in response to the glare Maru was giving him.

"It was great, thanks for asking, Hisa-chan," she responded giving probably the fakest smile ever. She hated the nickname he gave her, which came from a children's song.

He gave an equally fake smile in regards to the "Hisa-chan" comment.

"Can't we all just get along," I sighed as they continued arguing.

Matsuhita was next to me and he just looked confused, he was really only close friends with Seitarou and we only hung out occasionally, "Are they always like that?"

"Pretty much,"

Their bickering continued. But, I smiled at them and thought that if anyone was a cute couple it was those two. About have way through lunch Maru tapped my shoulder and said, "Come to the bathroom with me?"

"Sure"

We strolled out of the classroom to the bathroom. Maru was reapplying her mascara and I was leaning against the bathroom counter.

That glint of curisoisty had returned to her eyes. "So, why were you and Seitarou holding hands this morning?"

"When are you going to understand that we are _not_ like that, Maru?"

She didn't respond and just kept applying the mascara, her implying she didn't believe me.

"Maru, some pervert felt me up on the train, I was trying to reassure him that I was ok,"

"Eww gross, _are_ you okay?" she squealed and gave me a concerned look.

"Mmm, I'm okay, let's get back to class,"

* * *

My last class of the day was also my only class with Seitarou. It was a special advanced chemistry class that required a lab room. Also, the teacher this year, Takeda-san, allowed us to pick our own lab partners. I chose Seitarou, unsurprisingly. During the last five minutes of the class an announcement was made over the loud speaker.

"Attention students, the following clubs have been cancelled for this afternoon. They are as follows, the cooking club, the karate club, and the conversational English club. All clubs will, however, be operational tomorrow.

"I wonder why they're canceled,"

"I heard a pipe burst in the karate club's practice room, I'm not sure about the other two though,

As we exited he said, "I'll meet you at the train station at five-thirty, then?"

"Huh, why? The karate club's canceled you should just go home, I don't want you to have to wait,"

"You'll be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll make Saikawa walk me to the station after, he lives around here and probably won't mind,"

"Go on, Sei, you're going to take the train home with me every other day for the rest of the year."

I turned around and said, "See you tomorrow, Seitarou," as I headed for the track club.

Headed towards the girls changing room I heard someone call out, "Hey you, wait up!"

I stopped and turned to see who was calling me. It was a first year girl, she had a light tan and short brownish hair. I had no clue as to who she was.

"I—I think you dro—"

She was still running toward me and shouting when suddenly she tripped and fell, seemingly over nothing.

'What is this about,' I wondered but rushed over just the same.

She was holding her nose, which seemed to be bleeding quite profusely, as her hand was also being quickly covered with blood.

"You dope, go to the nurse," I said as I tried to help her up without getting blood on my shirt, rather unsuccessfully.

"School nurses usually leave at the end of the day, it should stop soon anyway,"

"How would you know?"

"I've ended up at the nurse's office a lot ever since I'm a little kid,"

"Oh, is that so"

From the way she tripped on nothing just now, her frequency at the nurse's office was not all that unsurprising.

"Alright, come on, follow me, I think the girl's locker room has a first aide kit,"

"But—"

"Come on, baka, you're making me late,"

After that she shut up. I found the first aide kid in the now empty girls changing room, as most clubs had already started. She sat and held a paper towel to the cut on the bridge of her nose to stop the bleeding.

"What's your name?" she asked meekly and sounding strange from the pressure she was putting on her nose.

"Ogino Chihiro,"

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Kamimura Chinatsu,"

While the girl sat, stopping her bloody nose, I quickly changed into my track clothes, consisting of a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers.

"It's probably stopped bleeding, I'll put a band aid over it,"

She nodded in compliance and I wiped the cut with an antiseptic wipe and placed the band aid over a cut on the bridge of her nose.

"Well, if you're fine now, I'll be going, I'm late for track,"

"Wait track, I was going to track, now I'm late, they're not going to let me on the team, what am I going to d—"

She latched onto my arm and seemed quite disturbed. I interrupted her saying, "Slow down, just get changed and we can go out together,"

"Thank you, thank you, Ogino-senpai,"

* * *

We quickly made our way out to the school track. Kuhabara Shouko was the team's vice captain and was running the practice. We were also good friends.

"Hi, Kuhabara-senpai, I'm sorry we're late," I said bowing my head, Chinatsu did the same.

"I was wondering where you were, Chihiro-chan?"

"Oh we had a little accident in the hallway, I was helping Kamimura-san out in the locker room." I gestured to the bandaged nose.

"Ah, so you're the reason my beloved Chihiro-chan was late, that's an extra five laps for you," she said giving an evil grin, I was having difficulty keeping a straight face. Shouko likes to give first years a hard time. She was like this to me last year as well.

"And now that I think about it five extra laps to you too, Chihiro, for being late,"

"Wha—" I started, my jaw dropping.

She cut me off, "After that do the regular warm up, and then you can join with the rest of us.

I grunted and made my way to the track, Chinatsu scurried behind me a few seconds later. I was annoyed that I was being punished and ignored her. Until, that is I glanced over at her, she looked upset.

"Hey," I said, causing her to glance cautiously over at me, "You're not half bad, I think you'll definitely have a spot on our team."

Her face lit up, and after a second she nodded her thanks. Practice went normally after that and Chinatsu even almost beat one of Saikawa's times, which made me like her even more.

* * *

Practice was over, having changed back into my uniform I headed to the front of the school where Saikawa said he would meet me. He also grunted something about Seitarou hunting him down if he didn't agree.

I could just make out Saikawa's gangly figure leaning against the school's gate post. I started towards him when I heard Chinatsu.

She was waving her hand around in the air as she unceremonisuly trotted towards me shouting, "Ogino-sempai, wait a minute,"

I stopped walking, hands on my hips.

_Hopefully she doesn't trip this time_

Thankfully, she did not reacquaint her face with the ground. She came up to me smiling.

"I almost forgot, this is why I called after you in the hall earlier," she looked down, probably recalling her embarrassing face plant from earlier.

She thrust out her hand, which was holding a rectangular, stone object, "I saw it fall out of your bag."

My face probably looked horrified. This thing she was holding out it—it looked exactly like a bath token from _that_ place.

I tried to stay calm. "I-it fell from m-my bag, you're sure?"

She nodded, not realizing the current mental turmoil I was experiencing, "Definitely."

I didn't want to make a scene and shakily took the sleek, black _thing_ from her outstretched hand and quickly shoved it into my school bag, "T-thanks a lot, Chinatsu, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it," she called, as I sprinted over to Saikawa, still leaning against the post. Hurriedly I told him he didn't have to walk me to the train station. He looked confused but didn't have time to question, as I sprinted away for the train.

I wanted to be alone. In order to reassess my mental capacity. What if I'm going crazy again? I'll lose all my friends. What if they lock me away? Put me in an insane asylum? No, I just have to pretend this didn't happen. The token is some kind of weird coincidence. The train was crowded; someone could have accidentally dropped it into my bag, or something. I was rambling and still blindly running for the train station.

That is until, I collided into a man's chest with a thud. "Please forgive me, sir—" I looked up, expecting an angry business man leaving the train station after work. I was thoroughly and completely wrong. It was the pervert from the train this morning with the strange eyes.

We made eye contact. He chuckled. I yelled and ran by him just making it between the closing doors of my train home. I tried my best to calm down. I decided I was going to put a stop to this madness. I was not going crazy again. Not if I had anything to do with it.

* * *

Sitting at dinner with my family that night I probably looked normal. At least, I hoped I did. My resolve to personally prevent any more insanity from tainting my life gave me strength and resolve.

When my parents asked my sister and I how our first day of school went this year. I was able to confidently answers saying it went fine and even told them I had made a new friend. They looked pleased.

My six year old sister, Hitomi, described her first day in detail. I half listened to most of it as I ate my dinner. She seemed to be wrapping it up when she turned directly towards me, "And guess what I found, Chihiro?"

Exasperatedly, I responded, "What?"

Just as she shouted, "A KITTY CAT!" a yellow and orange tabby cat sauntered into our dining room. I frowned slightly, but she didn't seem to notice.

"And Mom and Dad are letting you keep it?" I glanced over at them hopping they would say no.

"Yup! I already named him, too," she chirped. My frown deepened.

Cats had always hated me. They would hiss and scratch me whenever I came close. So having I pet cat that I would probably be forced to take care of when Hitomi got bored of it was hardly a thrilling prospect. I could almost feel the scratches now.

I went back to my food and she continued talking, saying she named the cat "Aka" because his eyes were a dark reddish amber color. Creativity, apparently, does not run in our family.

When Hitomi finally stopped talking Daisuke clapped his hands from his high chair. I laughed out loud, gaining a harsh glare from my mother. I scurried into the kitchen with the dishes to escape her eyes and Hitomi soon followed, along with the cat, who I glared at.

We started at our chore, I washed and she dried. Soon enough she started to sing one of those popular pop songs that everybody forgets in six months. She hit me with the dish towel, "Sing with me." I splashed her back a little but none the less sung along to the cheesy song. We were both happy and laughing by the time we were finished.

I turned around and rested my back against the damp counter top, folding up the dishtowel for Hitomi, still giggling and noticed the cat. He was a few feet behind us and those dark reddish eyes bore into my own.

I stopped laughing, "Did you feed _your_ cat, Hitomi?"

She put her pointer finger to her head and tapped, attempting, and failing, to look pensive before she shook her head, "Hmm, I guess not."

With that she paraded out of the room ignoring my angry calls and death threats. The cat and I stared at each other for a second until he meowed.

"What do cats eat?" I asked aloud, looking through the fridge, "Ah, this should do,"

Slapping a few leftover sushi roles from a few nights ago on a plate I fed the cat. And surprisingly, he ate it. I patted him on the head saying, "Good boy." He hissed and I kept walking.

* * *

**Let me know what you think? :0**


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